As the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, the community played a major role in the westward expansion of the United States.

[5] William Becknell, who is now known as the "Father of the Santa Fe Trail," lived on a farm a few miles northwest of Franklin.

[6] In 1821, William Becknell put a notice in the Missouri Intelligencer, announcing that he was organizing a party to go "westward, for the purpose of trading for horses and mules and catching wild animals of every description."

On September 1, 1821, his party crossed the Missouri River at Arrow Rock and set out along what would become known in a few years as the Santa Fe Trail.

But the following year, Becknell searched for a path that would be wide enough for wagons and draft teams, to accommodate more trade.

This improvement was integral to the growth of the Santa Fe Trail for use by both traders and the emigrants of the 1830s who moved on by various branches to the territories of the West: the future states of Oregon, California, and Washington.

Residents rebuilt a short distance away on higher ground, creating New Franklin, Missouri.

[7] Born in Madison County, Kentucky, near the city of Richmond, Kit Carson migrated as a boy with his family to Franklin, where he was raised.

[8] Lindsey Carson was a farmer of Scots-Irish descent who had fought in the Revolutionary War under General Wade Hampton.

The town was considered the eastern terminus of the Santa Fe Trail, which had opened two years earlier.

Carson is reported to have found working in the saddle shop to be suffocating: he once said "the business did not suit me, and I concluded to leave".

[12] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.23 square miles (0.60 km2), all land.